I wish him the best of health in the future and a very happy retirement after a successful career.
But there is absolutely no chance I'm going to thank him for trying to run our best player out of town and completely misusing the roster all season, whilst ignoring defense and throwing players under the bus through the media. Not. A. Chance.
But there is absolutely no chance I'm going to thank him for trying to run our best player out of town and completely misusing the roster all season, whilst ignoring defense and throwing players under the bus through the media. Not. A. Chance.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/why-george-karl-s-firing-won-t-fix-kings-165249640.html
Pretty much in agreement with this article.
Pretty much in agreement with this article.
Yeah, poor George Karl was undermined from the get-go. Right from the moment he decided to try and trade DMC before the ink was dry on his contract. But hey, he was just trying to get rid of the cancer player that destroyed the young and promising careers of all those coaches, from Musselman to Corbin, who went on to have great stints once they were free of the Cuz-shackles.
Interesting. Nate McMillan has been at the top of my coaching wishlist for years. I had thought his connections to George Karl would take him out of consideration, but if he is an option, he's right up there with Thibs for me. I really liked the teams he coached in Seattle and Portland. He also has experience coaching for Team USA.
Yes and George Karl made the playoffs in 22 out of 25 seasons before we hired him. Big deal. I was talking more about the way those teams played. He coached an up-tempo offense in Seattle with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis as the main scorers and then he coached a slow grind-it-out team in Portland that was known for their defense. That team he inherited in Portland was the worst in the league and he got them to 50 wins in three years. More importantly, he completely turned around their "Jailblazer" reputation and made them a respected perennial playoff team without the benefit of a first overall pick (Greg Oden) who couldn't stay on the floor. I think he's a good mix of a player coach who's also a disciplinarian.
Here's a snippet from an article about his work as an assistant coach in Indiana:
That's what we need right? Someone firm enough to back up what he says and demand respect, but also empathetic enough to get in DeMarcus' head and make sure he stays focused. I don't know that he's the best man (or woman) for the job, but I appreciate the work he's done elsewhere and I'm glad he's at least getting an interview.
Here's another good quote about his philosophy:
Here's a snippet from an article about his work as an assistant coach in Indiana:
That's what we need right? Someone firm enough to back up what he says and demand respect, but also empathetic enough to get in DeMarcus' head and make sure he stays focused. I don't know that he's the best man (or woman) for the job, but I appreciate the work he's done elsewhere and I'm glad he's at least getting an interview.
Here's another good quote about his philosophy:
Last edited:
I like the guy but I don't think he'd be a miracle worker for the Kings. He dealt with some tough injuries with the Blazers but he basically just did what he should have. Terry Stotts has these Blazers overachieving. That's what I want. I felt Malone had us overachieving at the start of last season and Boogie gets hurt and they foolishly cut him loose. I'm worried we'll spend too much effort trying to have a splashy name come in instead of finding a Terry Stotts or Brad Stevens. Obviously some of the guys we had this season will not be back but it was a promising lineup on paper and with a less rigid coach that is willing to use the talent he has correctly rather than jam square pegs into round holes I think we would have had success.
Do we need a miracle worker though? We need a steadying influence who's going to get whoever we have on the team to compete every night and play for each other. I don't see why Nate McMillan should be viewed any differently than the myriad assistant coaches being floated as possibilities. Maybe he isn't an offense genius or a defensive guru, but he is a little bit more of a known commodity and what we know about him isn't bad. He wasn't fired from the Sonics, his contract expired and he got a better offer from Portland. I think the contrast in styles between those two teams shows that he is able to adjust to different personnel. And even though he did get fired in Portland, pretty much everyone agrees that it was a spectacular series of events that led there with Greg Oden and Brandon Roy both essentially retiring due to injury at the same time and the patchwork collection of fill-in vets tuning him out and/or playing for their own contracts. Just before that he got 54 wins with Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, 20 year old Nic Batum (in his rookie season), and a half season's worth of Greg Oden. Maybe you remember this differently as a Portland resident, but I don't see how that's less impressive than Terry Stotts winning 44 games this year. Both teams were basically built around 2 stars with a bunch of role-players. And that team was well on it's way to being the best team in the Western Conference before injuries gutted it.
We don't need a miracle worker although finding one would be wonderful. We need a coach who is a player's coach, who has a few ideas about offense and understand how important defense is. I said it before and will say it again (it's taken from some coach who was great) that a small percentage of coaches influence a team to be great and a few actually hurt a team. All the rest are in the middle. Unfortunately, Karl was a coach, at this time in his career, actually hurt us. Adelman for us was in that upper group.
I don't know much about coaches but at this point if he can get along with the players, we'll be fine. If he drives them on defense we may be very good. I am happy that Vlade has the time to think about all this. I hope he waits until after the playoffs to see if any of the coaches are fired. Let us remember the reality about Malone. Malone was a defensive coach who Boogie and I am sure others really liked. Malone was kinda lost on offense and he wasn't very good at using his time outs. He had a lot of holes in his game that I am sure over time will improve. We did well even with Malone's limitations.
I don't know much about coaches but at this point if he can get along with the players, we'll be fine. If he drives them on defense we may be very good. I am happy that Vlade has the time to think about all this. I hope he waits until after the playoffs to see if any of the coaches are fired. Let us remember the reality about Malone. Malone was a defensive coach who Boogie and I am sure others really liked. Malone was kinda lost on offense and he wasn't very good at using his time outs. He had a lot of holes in his game that I am sure over time will improve. We did well even with Malone's limitations.
TBH, I don't know if we need a miracle worker. We need someone who is not a piece of junk and we need someone who is not a headcase and will war with Cousins rather than adapt to a top 5 talent. Given the Kings track record post-Adelman, that feels like asking for a miracle.
Honestly, I only loosely follow the Blazers, they're unavoidable if you're a Portland sports fan, but this year was pretty different for me. I thought LA and the others bolting was cold blooded, it upset me to some extent, and I left them for dead entering the season. I met this gal who is a big fan in September, and we'd have little fun bets when they played the Kings, which lead to me watching more games and going to more games than usual, and I came to really like this year's team. I don't know the role of coaching but I really thought this was a 25 win team and so Terry Stotts job impressed the heck out of me.
Always liked Nate, I just thought he was a fairly middle of the road coach. He got what was expected out of a team, nothing more, nothing less. Certainly an improvement over most coaches in the Sacramento era. Only Adelman, *possibly* St. Jean in 1995 and Malone. The only other coach I might muster a nice thing to say about is that Theus got some wins out of a team that should have been tanking. Make of that what you will.
Honestly, I only loosely follow the Blazers, they're unavoidable if you're a Portland sports fan, but this year was pretty different for me. I thought LA and the others bolting was cold blooded, it upset me to some extent, and I left them for dead entering the season. I met this gal who is a big fan in September, and we'd have little fun bets when they played the Kings, which lead to me watching more games and going to more games than usual, and I came to really like this year's team. I don't know the role of coaching but I really thought this was a 25 win team and so Terry Stotts job impressed the heck out of me.
Always liked Nate, I just thought he was a fairly middle of the road coach. He got what was expected out of a team, nothing more, nothing less. Certainly an improvement over most coaches in the Sacramento era. Only Adelman, *possibly* St. Jean in 1995 and Malone. The only other coach I might muster a nice thing to say about is that Theus got some wins out of a team that should have been tanking. Make of that what you will.
Because the dumpster fire that is the Kings has seen the light. Getting rid of Chris Mullin, Pete D'Allesandro and now George Karl will allow Vlade Divac to finally do things they way they should have been done. I have faith, and I suspect there are coaches out there who do, too, and who will want to come to Sacramento to be a part of the renaissance.
If you had Vivek's pockets and knew for a fact that signing Thibs would (1) get the Kings to the playoffs and (2) keep DMC, wouldn't you double other teams offers to get it done? I think the consensus is that with Thibs both goals/achievements are as good as facts, and without him they are highly questionable.
While the national dimwits can keep on their drumbeat, I do so wish the local fans would take a step back and examine the continuing "dumpster fire" charge nonsense. Now we certainly WERE a dumpster fire. But since Vlade arrived he's been in full fire fighter garb spraying fire retardant everywhere he can reach.
Did anybody else notice that we went the entire season with the exact same 15 man roster, and less exceptionally, with the same coach (did can an assistant). We just reupped Vlade as GM/whatever his official title is. There were still signs of roiling under the surface, but just about every single roil this time was directly centered on Karl. There were no obvious rifts in the front office. The team itself seemed to hold together chemistrywise right until the end.
The source of almost all of the apparent drama last season, whether of his making, or just as a party, was just fired. There have been few signs of instability elsewhere, let alone dumpster fire.
Whether prospective coaches will perceive that or not I do not know, but Vlade radiates a certain level of calm that could help sell it.
Did anybody else notice that we went the entire season with the exact same 15 man roster, and less exceptionally, with the same coach (did can an assistant). We just reupped Vlade as GM/whatever his official title is. There were still signs of roiling under the surface, but just about every single roil this time was directly centered on Karl. There were no obvious rifts in the front office. The team itself seemed to hold together chemistrywise right until the end.
The source of almost all of the apparent drama last season, whether of his making, or just as a party, was just fired. There have been few signs of instability elsewhere, let alone dumpster fire.
Whether prospective coaches will perceive that or not I do not know, but Vlade radiates a certain level of calm that could help sell it.
Last edited:
Easier said than done. How many of our fired coaches are we still paying? We are bleeding money in the coaching department and I am not sure that Vivek will be willing to fork over that much money, even for Thibs (nor do I think its realistic for us, but that's another matter). Mchale or McMillan would be great alternatives. I'm not a huge fan of Scott Brooks (I don't think he's a great coach, just happened to have 2 future hall of famers on his team), Thibs will have every single team after him and will most likely get to pick where he wants to go. A dark horse could be David Blatt, but I haven't really heard anything about him related to us.
It's 3 years late but finally a clean slate!
Over to you Vlade! Make it count as unfortunately you can't screw this up. We used up all of our chances and this literally is the last shot. Simply cannot get it wrong! The pressure is on but if he is given all the freedom to do his job, Vlade will make it right!
Over to you Vlade! Make it count as unfortunately you can't screw this up. We used up all of our chances and this literally is the last shot. Simply cannot get it wrong! The pressure is on but if he is given all the freedom to do his job, Vlade will make it right!
The reports coming out this week say Milwaukee is sticking with Kidd, Chicago isn't ready to make a coaching change quite yet, Phil Jackson still likes Rambis, and the Lakers are likely to keep Byron Scott out of appreciation of his shepharding Kobe's coronation year. The Cleveland job is apparently Mark Jackson's if he wants it vis-a-vis Lebron, Phoenix seems happy with the job Earl Watson did since taking over and it remains all quiet on the Philadelphia and New Orleans fronts. So maybe the competition won't be quite as fierce as I initially projected. Minnesota, Houston, Washington and Brooklyn look like our main competition for the top coaches.
All of which actually helps us. Means the Sixers are truly off the general market, and it protects us from any D'Antoni foolishness, not thatI think Vlade is looking in that direction at all.
Right now only a few teams have moved quickly onto the market. Vlade says he'll start making calls on Monday. Would be great to be into the process before playoff teams like Houston get bounced and potentially start looking.
Of the lottery teams:
Not Changing
Bulls
Jazz
Magic
Nuggets
Holding Pattern
Pelicans
76ers
Lakers
Knicks
Bucks
Delayed Announcement
Suns
Nets
Already in Market
Kings
Timberwolves
Wizards
If the Suns want to slip into a holding pattern over Earl Watson, hey, be my guest. Everybody knows the Nets are a competitor however.
In any case, if we can move quickly before some of those other teams start filtering in. Especially before any premade playoff teams hit the market, we up at our chances at scoring a strong coach. Only the Wolves of the teams already committed have an obviously stronger position, and you have to freeze your ass off for it.
Right now only a few teams have moved quickly onto the market. Vlade says he'll start making calls on Monday. Would be great to be into the process before playoff teams like Houston get bounced and potentially start looking.
Of the lottery teams:
Not Changing
Bulls
Jazz
Magic
Nuggets
Holding Pattern
Pelicans
76ers
Lakers
Knicks
Bucks
Delayed Announcement
Suns
Nets
Already in Market
Kings
Timberwolves
Wizards
If the Suns want to slip into a holding pattern over Earl Watson, hey, be my guest. Everybody knows the Nets are a competitor however.
In any case, if we can move quickly before some of those other teams start filtering in. Especially before any premade playoff teams hit the market, we up at our chances at scoring a strong coach. Only the Wolves of the teams already committed have an obviously stronger position, and you have to freeze your ass off for it.